Oil rises above $74 as Asian equities rally

Benchmark crude for July delivery was up 78 cents to $74.56 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped $1.70 to close at $73.78 on Friday.

All major Asian stock markets gained Monday, led by a 1.7 percent jump in Japan, as traders bet the region's strong economic growth will boost company profits. Crude investors often look to equities as a barometer of overall investor sentiment.

Investors will be eyeing reports on U.S. housing starts, industrial production and consumer prices this week for clues about the strength of the global economy.

Oil prices rose 3.2 percent last week despite weak U.S. jobs and retail sales figures, a sign that suggests crude may continue to climb this week.

"Last week the bulls had the wind knocked out of them with round after round of disappointing macro-economic figures," energy consultancy the Schork Group said in a report. "However, despite all this bad news we still saw good action."

In other Nymex trading in July contracts, heating oil rose 1.60 cents to $2.0213 a gallon and gasoline gained 1.95 cents to $2.0692 a gallon. Natural gas was up 9.8 cents at $4.879 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Brent crude was up 65 cents to $75.00 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.